Lecture 8

SEMANTIC RELATIONS AS UNIVERSALS IN LEXICOLOGY

Questions for discussion
1. The basic notions of semantic relations.
2. Synonyms.
3. Antonyms.
4. Polysemy.
5. Homonymy.
6. Paronyms.

1. The basic notions of semantic relations

Closely connected sectors of vocabulary characterized by a common concept
are termed semantic fields. For example, the semantic field of colour (blue, black,
червоний, зелений, etc.), terms of kinship (mother, father, брат, сестра, etc.).
The basis of grouping is not only lingual, but also extralingual: the words are
associated because the things they name are closely connected in reality. Words
making up semantic fields cannot replace one another, they may belong to different
parts of speech, but all of them are joined together by some common semantic
component. E.g., in the semantic field of space there are nouns surface, expanse;
verbs extend, spread; adjectives spacious, vast, etc.
Lexical groups of words belonging to the same part of speech and linked by
a common concept are termed a lexico-semantic group (LSG). E.g., bread,
cheese, milk, meat, хліб, борщ make up a LSG with the concept of food.
The relationship existing between elements of a LSG and semantic fields is
that of inclusion, or hyponymy. E.g., the meaning of car, bus, taxi is included in
the meaning of vehicle. The hyponymic relationship may be viewed as the
hierarchical relations between the meaning of the general and the individual terms.
The general term vehicle is called a hyperonym; it serves to describe the lexico-
semantic group, e.g. the LSG of vehicles. The individual terms car, bus, taxi are
called hyponyms; they contain the meanings which distinguish them from each
other. Or, for instance, animal is a generic term (hyperonym) as compared to the
specific names (hyponyms) wolf, dog or mouse. The latter are also called
equonyms; an equonym ia a name well suited to a person, place, thing, etc. so
named. Dog, in its turn, may serve as a generic term (hyperonym) for different
breeds such as bull-dog, collie, poodle, etc.
The criterion of semantic similarity and semantic contrasts subdivided
lexical units into synonyms and antonyms, respectively. Synonyms and antonyms
are language universals because they exist in all Indo-European languages.

2. Synonyms
Synonyms are two or more words of the same language usually belonging to
the same part of speech and possessing one or more identical or similar denotative
meanings, interchangeable at least in some contexts, but differing in morphemic
structure, phonetic shape, shades of meaning, connotations, style, or idiomatic use.
Generally speaking, synonymous words and expressions are semantically similar
but stylistically different lexical units.
According to the parts of speech, there can be distinguished in English and
Ukrainian (and in other languages):
– synonymous nouns as end, close, termination, conclusion, finish, terminus,
stopping; in Ukrainian: кінець, закінчення, зупинка; огорожа/горожа, паркан,
штахети, тин, живопліт, лиса; балакун, говорун, баляндрасник, торохтій,
базікало, талалай, etc.;
– synonymous adjectives as conclusive, ending, final, terminal, completing,
ultimate; in Ukrainian: кінцевий, останній, заключний; безмежний, безкраїй,
безконечний, неосяжний, безмірний, неозорий, etc.;
– synonymous verbs as the following: act, play, perform, rehearse, star,
mimic, imitate, enact, play a part; in Ukrainian: діяти, виконувати, відігравати,
брати участь, грати; бити, батожити, періщити, дубасити, лупити,
лупцювати, гилити, etc.;
– synonymous adverbs: surprisingly, unexpectedly, unawares, plump, pop,
suddenly, and in Ukrainian: раптово, зненацька, негадано, як сніг на голову;
швидко, скоро, прудко, бистро, хутко, шпарко, жваво, прожогом, etc.
As any linguistic phenomenon, synonymy can be viewed both from
synchronic and diachronic points of view.
Synchronically, we classify synonyms into the following groups.
(1) Ideographic synonyms differ in the denotative component of meaning;
they denote different shades of meaning or different degrees of a given quality.
E.g., look, seem, appear; beautiful, fine, handsome, pretty; йти, рухатися,
мандрувати, курсувати, прямувати; думати, гадати, роздумувати,
міркувати, розмірковувати, розмишляти; поважний, серйозний, солідний,
статечний, важний, величний. Synonymic groups have a common semantic
element and express one notion with different semantic shades or stylistic value.
Each synonymic group comprises a synonymic dominant which is the general
term potentially containing the specific features of all other members of this group
(in the above given examples, the dominants are look, beautiful, йти, думати,
поважний). The dominant is generally both stylistically and emotionally neutral.
Such synonyms are also called semantic: e.g., glance – glare, хата – дім –
будинок, череда – отара – зграя.
There are synonyms where one expresses continuity of action or state while
the other expresses a momentary action of the same nature: e.g., to speak – to say;
to remember – to memorize.
(2) Stylistic synonyms are words which are close or identical in denotative
meaning but differ in emotive value or stylistic sphere of application. For example,
consider the correlation between neutral :: elevated :: colloquial words: child ::
infant :: kid; father :: parent :: dad; успіх :: торжество :: тріумф; радо ::
охоче :: залюбки; говорити :: промовляти :: горлопанити:: бубоніти ::
белебенiти :: теревенити :: гундосити; neutral :: archaic: often :: oft; there ::
younger; neutral :: poetic: leave :: quit; open :: ope; лоб :: чоло.
(3) Semantic-stylistic synonyms: e.g., house – slum, будинок – халупа.
 (4) Absolute (total) synonyms, which can replace each other in any given
context. Examples of this kind can be found among technical terms peculiar to this
or that branch of knowledge. In linguistics, e.g., noun :: substantive; functional
affix :: flexion; in medicine: scarlet fever :: scarlatina; the flu :: grippe; in other
spheres: відсоток :: процент.
(5) Contextual (or context-dependent) synonyms are similar in meaning
only in some specific distributional conditions. E.g., He bought (got) the book at
the bookshop. Він купив (дістав) книжку. I can’t stand (bear) him. Я не можу
його терпіти (переносити).
(6) Territorial synonyms are words which differ neither ideographically
nor stylistically but are used in different countries speaking the same language.
E.g.: British/Australian autumn – American/Canadian fall; British pavement –
Australian footpath – American/Canadian sidewalk.
Dialectal differences are also observed in Ukrainian, the most distinguishing
of them being Western, Northern, and Central regional dialects. In western Hutsul
dialects, for instance, дєдя and нянько are used for father, верховина for uplands;
in Halych region когут is used for півень, вуйко for uncle (дядько), вуйна for
дядина, файний for гарний, etc.
Both stylistic and territorial colourings can be observed, for example, in the
set of synonyms with general meaning “ледар”: ледар – ледащо – ледацюга –
ледарисько – ледай – ледач – ледень – ледака – легкобит – лiнивець – лiногуз
– лiнтюга – лiнюга – нероба – баглай – багливик – байда – байдала – гульвiса
– гультяка – засидень - лежебок – легака – легмас – лежнюха – лога –
поленак – лацюга –лахмар – лайдак – лотр – лумпiй – леньоха – пустоцвiт –
пустопаш – пустогай – пустоплях – дармотрус – набоштрик.
(7) There are also phraseological synonyms: these words are identical in
their meanings and styles but different in their combining with other words in the
sentence, e.g. to be late for a lecture but to miss the train, to visit museums but to
attend lectures, etc.
From the rhetoric viewpoint, euphemisms are synonyms used to replace
vulgar, impolite or just too directly critical words: e.g., unwise instead of stupid,
забирати лишки instead of красти, etc. In the opposite way, synonyms are used
as disphemisms: e.g., muzzle, морда, рило, пика, будка instead of face/обличчя.
From the diachronic point of view, we speak about the origin of synonyms
and the causes of their abundance in a language.
(1) Synonyms that owe their origin to foreign borrowings. For example,
the peculiar feature of synonymy in English is the contrast between simple native
words stylistically neutral, literary words borrowed from French and learned words
of Greek or Latin origin: e.g., native English : from French : from Latin: to ask –
to question – to interrogate; to gather – to assemble to – to collect; to end –
to finish – to complete.
(2) Synonyms created through the adoption of words from dialects (local
variants of the same language): e.g., girl :: lass (Scottish); wireless :: radio
(American); liquor :: whiskey (Irish).
 (3) Synonyms created by means of word-forming processes productive in
the language at a given time of its history. E.g.: affixation: anxiety :: anxiousness;
productivity :: productiveness; loss of affixes: amongst :: among; await :: wait;
shortening: memorandum :: memo; microphone :: mike; popular :: pop;
compounding: resistance :: fight back; treachery :: sell out.

3. Antonyms
Antonyms are words of the same language usually belonging to the same
part of speech and to the same semantic field, identical in style and nearly identical
in distribution, associated and often used together so that their denotative meaning
render contradictory or contrary notions. Antonyms form mostly pairs, not groups
like synonyms, e.g., above :: below, absent :: present, alike :: different, asleep ::
awake, back :: forth, bad :: good, big :: little, lateness :: earliness, continue ::
stop, beautiful :: ugly, quickly :: slowly, up :: down, висота :: низина; високий ::
низький; багатий :: бідний, гладкий :: худий, гарно :: погано, швидко ::
повільно, тепло :: холодно, весело :: сумно, etc. Thus, antonyms are
semantically opposite lexical items.
According to the parts of speech, antonyms can also be separately
considered as:
– antonymous nouns: lateness – earliness, freedom – slavery, висота –
низина, гора – долина, etc.;
– antonymous adjectives: beautiful – ugly, good – bad, високий – низький,
багатий – бідний, гладкий – худий, etc.;
– antonymous verbs: work – play, continue – stop, створювати –
руйнувати, знаходити – втрачати/губити, хвалити – гудити, etc.;
– antonymous adverbs: quickly – slowly, up – down, гарно – погано,
швидко – повільно, високо – низько, тепло – холодно, весело – сумно, etc.
As a rule, antonyms are studied only synchronically (not diachronically)
and classified into the following groups:
(1) Contradictories are antonyms which denote notions mutually opposed
and denying one another, e.g., dead :: alive, single :: married, perfect :: imperfect,
живий – мертвий, створювати :: руйнувати; знаходити :: губити.
(2) Contraries differ from contradictories in having some intermediate
members, e.g., cold :: hot ( cool :: warm are intermediate members, so cold may
serve as an antonym not only for hot but also for warm), молодий :: старий
(немолодий, середнього віку, літній, нестарий, старуватий are intermediate
components).
(3) Incompatibles are connected with the relations of exclusion, not
contradiction, e.g., morning :: evening, day :: night, freedom :: slavery, work ::
play, високо :: низько, гора :: долина, хвалити :: гудити, північ :: південь,
солодкий – гіркий, чоловік – жінка.
(4) Conversives denote one and the same referent or situation as viewed
from different points of view, e.g., buy :: sell, left :: right, give :: receive, parent ::
child, збiгати (з гори) :: збiгати (на гору), позичати (давати в борг) ::
позичати (брати в борг).
 Another classification of antonyms is based on a morphological approach:
(1) Root words form absolute antonyms (right :: wrong, рух :: спокій,
веселий :: сумний, високий :: низький, довгий :: короткий, внутрішній ::
зовнішній, білий – чорний, світлий – темний, корисний – шкідливий).
(2) The presence of negative affixes creates derivational (affixal)
antonyms (happy :: unhappy, влетiти :: вилетіти, зацвісти :: відцвісти).
Contrast is implied in the morphological structure of the words itself: appear –
disappear, logical – illogical. In Ukrainian the antonymous meaning is created
with the help of such prefixes: без-, проти-, а-, анти-, де-, дез-, дис-, iр-, iн.
E.g., алкогольний :: безалкогольний, народний :: антинародний,
раціональний :: ірраціональний.
(3) Phraseological antonyms: becoming components of phraseological
groups or compound words, such lexical items sometimes lose their absolutely
antonymic nature. E.g., to give –to take: to give a book – to take a book but to give
way will not have to take way as its antonym. Moreover, phraseological antonyms
cannot be used in parallel antonymic expressions indiscriminately. We can say The
books are alike :: The books are different, but we cannot say an alike book though
we do say a different book.
Antonymous words are typically used in such rhetoric figures of contrast as
oxymoron (a combination of words which are semantically incompatible: e.g.,
dangerous security; Холодним жаром запалало серце, etc.), antithesis (a
confrontation of at least two separate semantically opposite phrases: e.g., Ask not
what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country (John F.
Kennedy)), and paradox (a statement that apparently contradicts itself and yet
might be true: e.g., “I must be cruel to be kind” (W. Shakespeare)).

4. Polysemy
The word polysemy is of Greek origin denoting “having many meanings”.
Every meaning in the language is signalled either by the form of the word itself or
by context. The unity of the form and content of a polysemantic word is kept in its
lexico-grammatical variant.
All the lexico-grammatical variants of a word taken together form its
semantic structure. The semantic structure of a word is a set of interrelated
lexico-grammatical variants with different denotative and sometimes connotative
components of meaning. These variants belong to the same set because they are
expressed by the same combination of morphemes, although in different contextual
conditions. The elements are interrelated due to the existence of the common
semantic component. E.g., youth—(1) “the friends of one’s youth”, (2) “a young
man”, and (3) “young men and women”. These variants form a structured set
because they are expressed by the same sound complex and they all contain the
semantic component “young”.
Polysemy exists only in language, not in speech. An isolated word in a
dictionary is usually given with all its meanings (the semantic structure of a word
in language), but taken in any definite context, the word has only the meaning
required by the text. E.g., act has several meanings: “do something, behave, take
part in a play, pretend”. In the sentence Some men have acted courage who had it
not; but no man can act wit the word act means “pretend”. In Ukrainian the word
земля has the following meanings: (1) “третя від Сонця планета”, (2) “верхній
шар земної кори”, (3) “речовина темно-бурого кольору, що входить до складу
земної кори”, (4) суходіл (на відміну від водного простору), and (5) “країна,
край, держава”.
Synchronically, we understand polysemy as the co-existence of various
meanings of the same word at a certain historical period of language development.
There are different types of lexical meaning as elements of a word’s semantic
structure.
(1) General vs. special/particular. The general meaning occurs in various
and widely different contexts; special meanings are observed only in certain
contexts, e.g., technical meanings of the word power or the third meaning of
земля.
(2) Central/main vs. minor/peripheral. The meaning that first occurs to us
when we hear the cluster of sounds, i.e. the most frequent meaning of the word is
the central one. All other meanings are minor in comparison.
(3) Primary vs. secondary/derived. According to the tradition of
lexicography, the primary meaning is placed first in the dictionary. When we
describe the meaning of the word as secondary, we imply that it could not have
appeared before the primary meaning was in existence. When we refer to the
meaning as derived, we imply not only that, but also that it is dependent on the
primary meaning and somehow subordinate to it. E.g., in the word table the
primary meaning is “a piece of furniture”, but “the food put on the table” is
secondary as it is derived from the first one; in the word папір the meaning
“матеріал для писання” is primary and “будь-який письмовий документ
офіційного характеру” is secondary.
(4) Direct vs. figurative. The meaning is direct when it nominates the
referent without the help of the context—in isolation. The meaning is figurative
when the object is named and at the same time characterized through its similarity
with another object. E.g., mouth – “part of a face” (dir.), “some opening” (fig.).
If we are interested in the historical perspective, the meaning will be
classified according to their genetic characteristics. Here the following terms are
used: etymological, i.e. the earliest known meaning, archaic, i.e. the meaning
superseded at present by a newer one but still remaining; obsolete, i.e. gone out of
use; present-day meaning, which is the one most frequent in the present-day
language and the original meaning serving as basis for the derived ones.
According to the style and sphere of language in which the words may
occur, they are classified into: stylistically neutral vs. stylistically coloured.
Polysemy viewed diachronically is a historical change in the semantic
structure of the word. It implies that a word may retain its previous meanings and
at the same time acquire one or several new ones. We distinguish between two
schemes of the development of polysemy: radiation and concatenation.
(1) Radiation is a semantic process in which the primary meaning stands in
the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it in every direction like
rays. Each of them is independent of all the rest and may be traced back to the
central signification. E.g., paper—scientific article, money, promissory note,
document, written word (literature), newspaper, examination work.
(2) Concatenation is the semantic process in which the meaning of a word
moves gradually away from its first signification by successive shifts of meanings.
E.g., the word board may signify: (1) “a piece of timber”, (2) “an extended surface
of wood”, (3) “a table”, (4) “any piece of furniture resembling a table, as dressing-
board, side-board”, (5) “board and lodging”, (6) “an institution, as Board of Health,
Board of Trade”.
Radiation and concatenation are closely connected, being different stages of
the same semantic process. In fact, radiation always precedes concatenation.

5. Homonymy
Two or more words identical in sound and/or spelling but different in
meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonyms. In English,
for example, these are almost 90% monosyllabic words.
There can appear even syntactic homonymy (syntactic ambiguity, also
called amphiboly or amphibology), which is a situation where a sentence may be
interpreted in more than one way due to ambiguous sentence structure. For
example, the sentence I’m glad I’m a man, and so is Lola can mean “Lola and I are
both glad I’m a man” or “I’m glad Lola and I are both men” or “I’m glad I’m a
man, and Lola is also glad to be a man”. Ray Davies deliberately wrote this
ambiguity into the song, referring to a cross-dresser. The Ukrainian sentence Тінь
яблуні не заважає can be understood as Тінь від яблуні не заважає or Тінь не
заважає яблуні.
There are several classifications of homonyms.
According to the type of meaning, homonyms may be classified into
lexical, lexico-grammatical and grammatical.
(1) Lexical homonyms belong to one and the same part of speech and the
grammatical meanings of all their forms are identical, but they are different in their
lexical meaning. E.g., ball – a round object used in games and ball – a gathering of
people for dancing; Ukrainian: ключ – a source, spring, fountain and ключ – key.
(2) Lexico-grammatical homonyms differ both in lexical and grammatical
meanings as well as belong to different parts of speech. E.g., bear – an animal and
bear – to carry; seal – a sea animal and seal – to close tightly.
(3) Grammatical homonyms differ in grammatical meaning only: e.g.,
brothers pl. and brother’s – possessive case; stopped – the Past Indefinite and
stopped – Participle II.
The traditional formal classification of homonyms is based not only on
the meaning, but on three aspects—sound-form, graphic form, and meaning. Here
we distinguish between absolute homonyms (homonyms proper) and partial
homonyms (homophones, homographs, and homoforms).
Homonyms proper (absolute homonyms) are words identical both in
sounding and in graphic form though different in meaning. E.g., bark – a noise
made by a dog and bark – a sailing ship; back – part of the body, back – away from
the front, and back – to go back; bear – ведмідь and bear – носити, родити; pale
– кіл, паля and pale –блідий, тьмяний. The important point is that homonyms are
distinct words—not different meanings within one word.
Homophones (phonetic homonyms) are words identical in sounding but
different both in spelling and meaning. E.g., I – eye, nose – knows, son – син and
sun – сонце; pair – пара and pear – груша; see – бачити and sea – мope; sight –
зір, погляд, site – місце, ділянка and cite – цитувати; coarse – грубий and
course – кypc; light – легкий and light – світло; meet – зустрічати and meat –
м’ясо; piece – шматок, кусок and peace – мир.
In Ukrainian there are few homophones, among them several borrowings
with doubled consonants (біль – білль) and words with unstressed vowels е/и
(гребти – греби – гриби).
Homographs (graphic homonyms) are words identical in spelling but
different both in their sound-form and meaning. E.g., tear /tiə/ and /tεə/, lead /li:d/
and /led/, wind /wind/ and /waind/. In Ukrainian, homographs are distinguished by
the stress: e.g., дере΄вина (одиничне дерево) and дереви΄на (матеріал для
виготовлення різних предметів), ΄сага (жанр давньогерманського епосу) and
са΄га (річкова затока).
Homoforms (grammatical homonyms) coincide only in some of their
paradigm constituents. : e.g., English provided – Participle II of provide and provided
– коли, за умови; Ukrainian: ніс (на обличчі) and ніс (минулий час від нести).
From the viewpoint of their origin, homonyms are divided into
etymological and historical.
(1) Etymological homonyms are words of different origin. Their formal
coincidence is the result of various factors: phonetical changes in native and
borrowed words, changes in spelling, etc.: cf., OE mal > NE mole I (родимка) ::
OE mol > ME molle > NE mole II (кріт).
(2) Historical homonyms are those which result from disintegration
(splitting) of polysemy. At present there is not any connection between their
meanings, though they can be traced back to the same etymological source, e.g.,
nail (ніготь) :: nail (цвях) < OE naeg(e)l; beam (промінь) :: beam (балка) < OE
beam.
The so-called ‘false friends’ are pairs of words or phrases in two languages
or dialects (or letters in two alphabets) that look or sound similar, but differ
significantly in meaning: e.g., English resin – смола, каніфоль, ґлей and
Ukrainian резина – rubber.

6. Paronyms
Paronyms are words that are alike in form but different in meaning and
usage. They are liable to be mixed and sometimes mistakenly interchanged. E.g.,
precede – proceed; preposition – proposition; popular – populous; дільниця –
ділянка; танк – танкер; ефектний – ефективний; вдача – удача; компанія –
кампанія; талан – талант; веліти – воліти.
According to the lexical meaning, paronyms are:
 – synonymous, semantically close: hustle – hassle, рипіти – скрипіти,
радити – раяти;
– antonymous: emigration “the act of leaving one’s native country with the
intent to settle permanently or temporarily elsewhere) – immigration (the
movement of people into a country to which they are not native in order to settle
there), progress – regress – progression – regression; лепський – кепський,
густо – пусто;
– semantically different: bed – bad, gay – guy, орден – ордер, ефект –
афект.
Homonyms and paronyms are used to make pun, which is a play on words
and their meanings aimed at expressing criticism and/or producing a humorous
effect. E.g., A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handyman with a sense
of humus. (E. B. White, The Practical Farmer); Curl Up and Dye (a beauty salon
in London); Прийомний син барона був баран (Л. Костенко); Нечесну
приватизацію в народі називають прихватизацією; донощиків, шо на вухо
доносять, іменують Навуходоносорами (за ім’ям вавилонского царя
Навуходоносора).

Recommended references
1. Антрушина Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка : учеб. пособ. /
Атрушина Г. Б., Афанасьева О. В., Морозова Н. Н. – М. : Дрофа, 1999. –
С. 166-219.
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Questions to answer
1. What are the basic notions of semantic relationships?
2. What is the essence of synonymy?
3. What are the types of synonyms from the synchronic point of view?
4. What are the types of synonyms from the diachronic point of view?
 5. What are euphemisms and disphemisms?
6. What words are called antonyms?
7. What are the types of antonyms from the synchronic point of view?
8. What are the types of antonyms from the morphological point of view?
9. What rhetoric devices depend on using antonymous words and meanings?
10. What paradigmatic relationship is called polysemy?
11. What are the types of lexical meaning from the synchronic point of view
on polysemy?
12. What are the schemes/ways of the development of polysemy from the
diachronic point of view?
13. What is the essence of homonymy?
14. What are the types of homonyms according to the type of meaning?
15. What are the types of homonyms according to the traditional formal
classification of homonyms?
16. What are the types of homonyms from the viewpoint of their origin?
17. What words are called paronyms?
18. What are the types and applications of paronyms?
19. What is pun? What paradigmatic relations are typically used in this
rhetoric device?